Talkin With My Avatar
by RWC-High-Priest-Wil
Summary: Hi, L.C. Techno here. I was put in charge of putting up the summary of my bro's story...instead I'll turn it into a shameless plug...read my stories! Just kidding, a what-if story. What if your avatar could talk with you?
1. Huh?

_**Talkin with My Avatar**_

**By RWC-High PriestWill**

**Chapter One: Huh?**

It's been over a year now since I've started playing Ragnarok Online. There were several times I wanted to stop but I kept on going. My efforts paid off. My acolyte Kinoa is near to being a priest and I'm planning on to be a High Priest when the updates come around to pRO. Kinoa is my favorite character and fairly generous to anyone who's looking for help. But the present builds on what is past and I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for him.

I've never been into RPG but when I heard of the Philippine's first Massively Multi Online Role Playing Game, I signed up for the three day trial. Three days later I was only level 5 but I was having a blast. Everything was new and exciting. I choose a cool looking guy with long brown hair in a ponytail and had him named D Arcadia. (My sister thought the name was cute.) Remember your first times? First time I beat a Rocker, first time I sold something to another player...first you got an item and not sure if you should sell it...then the first time I changed jobs. It took me near forever but I was assigned to be an archer. So there I was, thinking being an archer is the coolest job ever because I got to be one. I could almost laugh at my beginning mistakes but unfortunately the bad times outweighed the good. Novelty wore off: you could only level up so many times. Talking was moot since 70 of the people I meet are jerks. The guys anyway, the girls (if they really are girls) just ignore me. No one CTC. For a multi player game, it grew quite lonesome. I'm not used to being a party, online or in "Real life." I don't have friends who'd hang out with me after school and play together or stuff. I'm kinda an outcast in my "real" life and now in the game. Yup, so much for the great online experience. To tell the truth I'd like someone to chat with, be my bud and confidante and all that... I read stories of great friendships that last forever and blah...I'm envious of that. I see people flock and laugh together but if I even try to join I eventually get mocked. I hate people who mock, very unkind too. Jerks. Still I persisted, a part of me believed in good players and in friendships. I couldn't play regularly since there are troubles at home and I'm stuck with school work but I play every chance I get. Aside from t.v. or manga, computers were my passion.

Three months after I've started playing, I was growing quite tired. I decided to log out...maybe forever or maybe for a while. I was rubbing my eyes with one hand while the other was hovering on the Esc key when someone "whispered" to me. Perfectly normal, I've gotten those before. What happened next made my jaw drop. Written on my chat window was the name of...D Arcadia?

"Hey, dude, what's up?"

Ano ang nangyayari? Virus ata. I better log out and reboot immediately.

"Dude, answer back, please?"

Please? That was new. No one ever said please to me, so to be polite I whisper the first answer that came to my mind...

"WTF! How is this happening!" By its own will /heh appeared in my typing bar, a second later a laughing emoticon above my character.

"Nice to finally meet you too."

Impossible as it may seem...so began the talks with my avatar.

"How can you possibly talk to me???" I whispered back quickly. Was there some sort of oversight from Level up! Na pwedeng two players will have the same name? Pero I was alone in this area. And that didn't explain the emoticon appearing in my typing bar and over D's head.

"Uh, dude, could you sit me down first, please?" You can talk, why don't you sit yourself down, I wanted to respond, nevertheless I pushed the insert key. D kneeled down. Again characters appeared in my typing bar, /thx and the bubble of thanks appeared over his head. I repeated my question.

"I don't know dude but it's pretty nice being able to talk to you." He gave me a thumbs up. I twisted my face trying to figure out what to say next.

"It's pretty weird for me. Paano kaya nagkaganito?" I finally replied.

Confusion in his emoticon. "Aaaahhh…sorry, dude, didn't catch your last word…"

"Never mind." I typed.

"Sure. Hey! I feel better now. Let's go hunting!" He was standing now, eager to start to act. I just noticed that his hp was full, a nice green color. Awhile back it was red.

"C'mon,dude, let's move."

"Right. You can talk, can't you move too?"

A giant question mark over his head.

"Never mind, D, let's go."

I was having too much fun, D kept making crazy remarks to the monsters (Hey, I don't like your music, now quit hitting with that violin!) that I totally forgot that not only was it past midnight and I had school; my load was almost used up! D and I had just finished whacking another Rocker (I had no arrows left) when that dreaded message popped. I dumbly watched my archer still going up and down, a question mark frozen on top his head. I reluctantly log off and shut down my PC. But as I swerved out of chair, I realized something.

I couldn't wait to play again.

_Special thanks to L.C. Techno,my little sister,who beta read my fanfiction and corrected my grammatical mistakes even though she was dead tired from her trip and rather wanted to work on her own fics._

_(whatever)_


	2. Strangeness

**Chapter Two: Strangeness **

School next day dragged on forever. I rushed back home, grabbing a fifty peso Top-up card; good for eight hours. Gluing myself in front of the computer, I glared at my sister who wanted to play. I loaded my account and connected to game. I felt butterflies in my stomach as I clicked on my character and watched the loading screen shot up. There was my archer, right where I left him.

"Welcome back, dude."

So it wasn't an illusion or my overactive mind working! He was still there. Fine, everything was unbelievable and I'm still not sure if I should contact Level Up! Or tell somebody. But the point is: He's still there and talking.

"Hey D, why do you call me dude?"

A giant question mark appeared again on his head. "Would you like to be called something else?"

I thought about it for a while. I bent over the keyboard, typing away.

"Yeah, just call me...Chris"

"Righty-o, Chris." /no1.

I couldn't help typing my own /no1.

* * *

There were a few things that were strange with D Arcadia (oh yeah, what wasn't strange with a talking avatar?) For instance he only speaks in perfect English. Conversing with him with in-game terms was—let's say—challenging. In any online game, certain jargon and shortcuts are created so we'd spend less time typing or we could outsiders go crazy with our talk. Take for example 'pots'. You and I know that it stands for potions, not, as D tried to guess, an item used by wizards to 'brew' stuff (like cauldrons). I have to explain the stuff that players like to say. 

"Can I ask question?" D sent me.

"You already did." I typed back.

He laughed. Like all avatars, he was mouth less so naturally he used an emoticon.

"Yeah, but I've got to ask..."

"What's amp?"

"Er...uh..." I stalled. I spent a good half hour explaining to him. But D learns very fast...sometimes even too fast...

I was leading him towards Poring Island when some punk passed by and saw D shooting a PecoPeco. I messed up my archer's statistics because I didn't know you could adjust the beginning stats. D was left weaker than he should've have been. The punk began telling how pathetic my archer, in Tagalog and computer pidgin. D finished shooting the Peco and said something quickly.

"Oh yeah? AMP ka!"

I quickly dragged him away.

"Why did you say that?"

"That guy was totally insulting us. I had to say something!" D was really miffed. /pif kept on appearing on my typing bar and over his head.

"D," I typed to him. "I don't get mad, I get even. Don't worry, I'm gonna report that guy for harassment." True, I got a screenshot.

**"..."**

"C'mon, you're forgetting about Poring Island."

"Poring Island? Let's go!"

**--oOo--**

D gets so excited about adventuring, he'd willing take on monsters twice his size—and level. Good thing I still get to control his actions or else he'd be dead ten times over. I make sure he fights only what he could handle. We were at his favorite training grounds, Payon fields. We'd just upped his job level to 20 so he begged to take on a Wolf.

Double strafe was the way to go until Vagabond Wolf came our way! Within seconds we were engulfed in a mob of wolves. D could not keep up and fell. (Chris! I'm gonna...) The mob had moved on while I furiously began calling D. His name was on the whisper box but no words appeared on my screen. Something that would happen only if you try to talk with yourself.

"_Wag naman, please."_ I pleaded, cursing myself for not buying an Yggdrasil berry. D hasn't died since he began talking and I'm not sure how it'd affect. Will he lose the ability to speak? Will he remember anything? I pressed the escape key, warping us back inside Payon. I tried again whispering; the words disappeared as soon I hit enter.

I slumped on our office chair, the reality hitting me hard. Had our talks truly ended before it began? D was just there standing then...a black, translucent box emerged above his head.

"Got you, Chris." Those four familiar characters flashed in my typing bar before transforming into his favorite emoticon.

My hands sprung to life as the words tried to express my feeling...

"_Walang hiya ka!"_

And if there was an emoticon _na dumidila_ I'm sure he would've been using it impunity.

**--oOo--**

_Betareader notes: Hoy kuya, you make your chapters too short. Heh. Far less grammatical errors but I replaced a word or two for style._

_Amp_- it's an expletive in pRO

_Wag naman, please_- roughly "Please don't"

_Walang hiya ka!_ - roughly "You have no shame." But used here as something like "Darn you!"

_Dumidila_- sticking out your tongue


	3. Net Cafe

"What do you mean I can't play anymore!" I screamed in Tagalog. I stood numbly at our door, still in my school uniform and bag slung over my shoulder. That Top card was burning to be loaded.

"Your grades are slipping." My mother replies. I grabbed my blue messenger bag and was about to trash it to the floor when a thought struck me. I stomped to my room: second room in the hallway. Our house was small and had only three bedrooms and the essentials. I slammed the door and kicked the broom.

School was horrible. I failed to study for a test and got a low score. Some "friend" of mine lost my periodic table. I got out the 50 peso Top up card. A week had gone by already and I've only played with D twice.

I dumped my uniform and got into jeans and a Ragnarok Penshoppe "Paheal" Priest shirt.

"_Don't be angry, dude." He'd given me a thumb's up. I'd failed a time test that time and was ranting to him about it. He still calls me dude from time to time._

"_When bad things happen, take it easy. Even if jerkus tao comes in and insult. There'll be others day when you can go out and defeat that stupid Vagabond Wolf! Carp them! Sees the day!"_

"_Carp Diem! It's 'seize the day'" I smiled wryly. "Where do you get this stuff anyway?"_

_D blushed at being corrected. "Some other person played me."_

_What! What if that person discovered our secret!_

"_She liked to make poems and stuff and kept saying these Roman phrases." D continued._

Another one of D's strange abilities, the ability to sense the person. He could easily tell if a player's a girl or boy, sad or happy. It's pretty useful. One time D flirted with this novice gal. I warned him that it might not be a girl. He still continued and we got…two million zennies! D explained that the girl was just another character that the player was building up and she was glad she found someone so nice to talk with.(That was one reason I wanted to play.)

_"My sister was playing?"_

_Heads are gonna roll for this...(My sis's phrase not mine.)_

_"Yes but she was really fun to hear. She likes to make impromptu poetry and make mesit and recite! Wanna see?"_

_"No! Did my sister found out!"_

_Question mark._

_"About me having a freaky talking avatar, stupid!"_

_"Stupid!"_

He just stood numbly,hurt it seemedand at the worse possible moment, my load ran out.

"I didn't mean it...D." My week had been horrible and it's going downhill. I've got to make things right.

The next day, I risked everything that ever gaming manual suggested. I strolled into a shop, sat up and slipped the headphone on. I took a deep breathas I pressed the icon...

* * *

I've been so busy I almost forgot I had an account! 


End file.
